At Columbia, Pro-Israel Crowd Yells ‘Go Back To Gaza!’ At Pro-Palestinian Students

NEW YORK — A crowd of pro-Israel protesters gathered just outside the Columbia University campus on Thursday evening, chanting through the gates at a group of pro-Palestinian students inside to “go to Gaza!”

“Go home, terrorists!” the pro-Israel crowd screamed at the students. “Go back to Gaza!” they yelled. “Stop wasting mommy and daddy’s money!” one man said through a megaphone. “You want to camp? Go camp in Gaza!” said another man, referring to the Palestinian territory where Israel’s siege has killed some 33,000 people, and where this week local health officials said medics had discovered mass graves at hospitals raided by Israeli troops.

The White House — which under President Joe Biden has continued to send aid and weapons to Israel months after the International Court of Justice ruled that Palestinians in Gaza were at risk of experiencing a genocide — responded to HuffPost’s video of the incident in a statement Friday.

“Every American is an American, full stop,” deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said. “It is bigoted and outrageous to suggest that anyone should ‘go back’ anywhere. These kinds of statements degrade all of us, whether it’s telling someone to ‘go back’ to Gaza, or telling someone to ‘go back’ to Belarus and Poland, which was captured in other videos yesterday — countries where Jews were victims of the Holocaust and pogroms. President Biden stands against hateful rhetoric, and believes we must constantly respect the dignity of all people, regardless of disagreements about policy.”

The pro-Israel demonstration Thursday was helmed by a group of far-right Christian nationalist figures. Sean Feucht, the prominent MAGA pastor and musician , was the main organizer of the “Unite for Israel” rally. Feucht